Note: I received an F&G at ALA Midwinter 2020. ( )

The author awkwardly straddles the fantastic and the educational by anthropomorphizing the Mars Curiosity rover so it talks to the reader about its birthday party plans in the upper left corner while an interesting Mars fact is dryly offered in the lower right corner. It creates an unpleasant footnoting effect for a picture book when its being read aloud. ( )

A fun story written as journal entries by the Curiosity NASA Mars rover planning its first birthday party. It makes friends with rocks, invites a dust devil to the bash, and simulates lighting birthday candles with zaps of its laser. Each two-page spread has a short entry in language accessible to beginning readers, and a longer paragraph with a relevant fact about the mission. There are several factual errors in those longer paragraphs, unfortunately, but they don't diminish the fun of the book, and they aren't dealbreakers. Aside from those errors, the book would really help a parent or teacher answer kids' questions about what rovers do on Mars. I love a kids' book that can teach parents as they read to their kids. ( )